Optimization of library slew ratio based circuit

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a technique for providing minimal sequential overhead in a flip-flop circuit. Equalization of setup times is achieved in one embodiment. In addition, delays in clock to Q can be equalized for both rising data transitions and falling data transitions. Large setup times are not required since optimization techniques equalize setup times for both rising and falling data transitions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is desirable to have component parts of electronic circuits tooperate with each other to produce accurate and quick results. Higherspeed operation allows devices to operate and respond more quickly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the present invention may therefore comprise a methodof minimizing sequential overhead in a latching circuit designcomprising: generating a library representation of slew rates for risingand falling data transitions; creating an initial latching circuitdesign; performing parasitic extraction of the initial latching circuitdesign; optimizing device widths of components of the initial latchingcurrent design by less than approximately 15 percent of device widths ofthe initial latching circuit design to generate a timing optimizedlatching circuit that is substantially input transition directionindependent; generating a layout of the optimized latching circuit;recharacterizing the altered layout of the optimized latching circuit.

An embodiment of the present invention may further comprise a latchingcircuit that has reduced sequential overhead comprising: a firstpass-gate that has an N-channel device that has a device width that hasbeen substantially optimized using hspice optimization routines, and aP-channel device that has a device width that has been substantiallyoptimized from an initial circuit layout using hspice optimizationroutines; a master loop having an inverter that has a P-channel devicethat has a device width that has been substantially optimized, and anN-channel device that has a device width that has been substantiallyoptimized, from an initial circuit layout using hspice optimizationroutines; a second pass-gate that has an N-channel device that has adevice width that has been substantially optimized from an initialcircuit layout and a P-channel device that has been substantiallyoptimized from an initial circuit layout, using hspice optimizationroutines; a slave loop having a second inverter that has a P-channeldevice that has been substantially optimized from an initial circuitlayout and an N-channel device that has been substantially optimizedfrom an initial circuit layout, using hspice optimization routines.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a driver/latch circuit employing oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1B is an illustration of a data pulse having disparate rising andfalling slew rates.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a clock circuit.

FIG. 3 is a timing diagram for a rising data pulse.

FIG. 4 is a timing diagram for a falling data pulse.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a flip-flop circuit.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process for optimizationof a latching circuit to be polarity independent.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a driver and latch circuit. As shown inFIG. 1A, driver 104 and latch 108 are embedded in an integrated circuitdevice. Input 102 comprises a data signal that is driven into a driver104 to produce a driver output data signal 106 that is applied to latch108. Latch 108 latches the driver output data signal 106 and produces anoutput 110 labeled Q.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the driver output 106 produces an output pulse 112that has a rising slew rate 114 and a falling slew rate 116. As shown inFIG. 1B, the rising slew rate 114 is slower than the falling slew rate116. For any given technology, there is a certain P:N ratio for all ofthe drivers which results, typically, with a weak P-channel compared toa stronger N-channel. Hence, the rising slew rate 114 is slower than thefalling slew rate 116. In accordance with one embodiment, the devicesizes in the latch 108 are optimized so that the calculated setup timesfor both rising data and falling data are substantially the same. Inthis fashion, static timing analysis tools do not require that thelongest setup time be dictated by the design, and there is a reductionin the rise/fall setup time disparities so as to minimize sequentialoverhead. In other words, the circuitry of the latch 108 is designed tohave the same setup time requirements, even though the rising data has alonger rising slew rate 114, than the faster falling data, which has afalling slew rate 116. The slew rates 114, 116, illustrated in FIG. 1B,are calculated by the library using test cells to provide accurate data.For example, most combinational logic drivers in a typical libraryutilize the same P:N ratio. As a result, a relatively constant ratio ofthe rising to falling output slew rate is produced across all of thegates of the library. The slew rate ratio is used for tuning the setuptimes for latch 108. The components of the latch 108 are tuned using thelibrary slew rates so that both the rising and falling input data setuptimes are nearly equal when analyzed by a static timing analysis tool.This produces a minimized sequential element overhead across the circuitdesign, as disclosed more fully below.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a clock circuit 200. The clock pulse202 is input to an inverter 204. The output of inverter 204 is aninverted clock pulse (ckb) 206. The inverted clock pulse 206 is appliedto another inverter 208 to produce the clock signal (ck) 210. Hence,both an inverted clock 206 and a clock signal 210 are generated by theclock circuit 200.

FIG. 3 illustrates the setup time 308, as well as the clock to Q time310, for a rising data pulse 304. As shown in FIG. 3, the data pulse 304precedes the clock pulse 302 by a certain setup time 308. It isdesirable to reduce the setup time 308 to increase the speed ofoperation of the latch circuit. As also shown in FIG. 3, the clock to Qtime 310 is illustrated, which is the time between the transition of theclock pulse 302 to the generation of output (Q) 306. For long setuptimes, a measured clock to Q time will be produced. As the setup time308 is reduced, there is a point at which the clock to Q time 310 willincrease. Design constraints dictate that setup times should not be lessthan an amount that causes the clock to Q time 310 to increase more than10 percent over the clock to Q time 310 for long setup times.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of the setup time 408 and clock to Q time 410for a falling data pulse 404. As shown in FIG. 4, the time between thefalling data pulse 404 and the clock pulse 402 is the setup time 408.The time between the clock pulse 402 and the falling output pulse (Q)406 is a clock to Q time 410. Again, for a long setup time 408, theclock to Q time 410 will have a specific measurable period. As the setuptime 408 is reduced by moving the falling data pulse 404 closer to theclock pulse 402, at some point, the clock to Q time 410 startsincreasing. The design constraints dictate that the setup time 408should not be less than an amount that causes the clock to Q time 410 toincrease more than 10 percent over the clock to Q time 410 that iscreated by a long setup time 408.

Latch and flip-flop library designs are not optimized for equal risingand falling data setup times with respect to slew rates of drivers usedin library designs. As a result, in situ latching elements, such asflip-flops, have setup time constraints that reflect a disparity betweenrising and falling input data. Hence, the worse case scenario must beadopted using the setup time constraints, i.e., the longest setup times.The calculated setup times 308, 408 for a rising data pulse 304 and afalling data pulse 404, respectively, are typically different in a latchcircuit due to the weak P-channel compared to the stronger N-channel inthe library drivers. The driver/latch circuit 100 must be designed forthe longer setup time of latch 108, since it is not known whether thedriver output 106 is a rising data pulse 304, or a falling data pulse404. Hence, latch/driver circuit 100 must be designed for the worse casescenario (longest setup time) to provide sufficient setup time foreither a falling or rising pulse. Of course, the setup times 308, 408,which are not equal, are dependent upon the slew rates 114, 116, whichare also not equal.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a flip-flop 500. As shown in FIG. 5,the input data 502, which corresponds to driver output 106 (FIG. 1), isapplied to inverter 504. Inverter 504 has a P-channel device 518 and anN-channel device 520. The output of the inverter 504, at node 522, isapplied to pass-gate 506. Pass-gate 506 includes a P-channel device 524that is controlled by the clock signal (ck) and an N-channel device 526that is controlled by the inverted clock signal (ckb). The output atnode 528 of the pass-gate 506 is applied to inverter 508 and a tristatedriver (T₁) 530 to generate a master loop 531. Inverter 508 includes aP-channel device (MP3) 532 and an N-channel device (MN3) 534. Tristatedriver (T₁) 530 is connected to both node 528 and node 536, which isconnected to the output of inverter 508. Node 536 is connected to theinput of pass-gate 510. Pass-gate 510 includes an N-channel device (MN4)538, which is activated by the clock signal (ck) and a P-channel device(MP4) 540, which is controlled by the inverted clock pulse (ckb). Theoutput node 542 of pass-gate 510 is applied to the input of inverter 512and tristate driver (T₂) 544, which create a slave loop 541. Inverter512 includes a P-channel device (MP5) 546 and an N-channel device (MN5)548. Node 550 is connected to the input of tristate driver (T₂) 544. Theoutput of tristate driver 544 is connected to node 542 to generate slaveloop 541. Node 550 is connected to the input of inverter (I4) 514.Inverter (I4) 514 includes a P-channel device (MP6) 552 and an N-channeldevice (MN6) 554. The output (Q) 516 is produced at the output ofinverter 514. The inverter (I2) 508 is the feed forward inverter for themaster loop that includes tristate driver (T₁) 530, while inverter (I3)512 is the feed forward inverter for the slave storage loop 541. Whenthe clock (ck) is low, data is allowed to flow from input 502 throughinverter (I1) 504, pass-gate (P1) 506 and inverter (I2) 508 andstabilize at node 536. When the clock (ck) transitions high, pass-gate(P1) 506 closes and pass-gate (P2) 510 opens. At this point, the data iscaptured in the master loop 531 when the tri-state driver (T1) 530 turnson. The data that was settled at node 536 is allowed to pass throughpass-gate (P2) 510, inverter (I3) 512 and inverter (I4) 514 to Q 516.

As set forth above, as the period between the transition of the inputdata 502 and the clock pulse becomes shorter, at some point the clock toQ delay will increase, which is limited to a 10 percent increase. Whenthis occurs, the data setup time is measured from the data transition tothe clock transition. The increase in clock to Q delay is the result ofnode 536 not fully stabilizing prior to the time when pass-gate (P₂) 510opens.

This process of determining the setup time is done for both rising andfalling input data. If the assumption is made that the delay from node(C) 536 to output (Q) 516 is constant for both rising and falling data,and the goal is to obtain equal setup times for flip-flop 500 for bothrising and falling data, then it is necessary to equalize the delay fromthe data input 502 to node C regardless of the polarity of the datainput 502. For example, if a data rising transition causes node (C) 536to rise at 30 ps, but a falling data transition causes node (C) 536 tofall in 20 ps, then the device sizes in inverter 504, pass-gate 506 andinverter 508 can be adjusted to equalize the rising and falling delaysto node (C) 536. An alteration to speedup the rising data pulse at node(C) 536 can be achieved by making some of the devices associated withthe falling data transition smaller. This slows down the falling datapropagation and also unloads each of the nodes due to smaller devicesizes, which would, in turn, speedup the rising data propagation. Forexample, with respect to inverter 508, for a rising data transition, theinput to inverter 508 (node 528) falls and transistor (MP3) 532 turnson. For a falling data transition, node B rises and transistor (MN3) 534turns on. Since it is desirable to speedup the rising data transition,transistor (MN3) 534 is made smaller. Making transistor (MN3) 534smaller unloads node 528 by reducing the gate capacitance of inverter508. This, in turn, increases the slew rate at node 528 and speeds upthe delay through transistor (MP3) 532, which is associated with arising data input propagation. The smaller transistor (MN3) 534 alsoslows down the falling data signal propagation to node 536.

A similar approach can be used with pass-gate (P1) 506. For rising inputdata 502, pass-gate (P1) 506 passes low data from node 522 to node 528because of inverter 504. For falling data 502, pass-gate (P1) 506 passeshigh data from node 522 to node 528. In order to speedup the propagationof rising input data from node 522 to node 528, the size of theN-channel device (MN2) 526 in pass-gate 506 is increased. In addition,the size of the P-channel device (MP2) 524 in pass-gate 506 is decreasedto slow down the falling data from node 522 to node 528.

Although the device sizes in inverters 504, 514 are not changed in theexamples given above, the size of these devices could also be changed.The sizes of the components in inverter 514 in a standard cell libraryare granular sizes (1×, 2×, etc.), and are fixed for a certain cell. Thesizes of inverters 204, 208 in clock circuit 200 of FIG. 2 can also bealtered depending on the load changes caused by size changes inpass-gates 506, 510.

As set forth above, it was assumed that there were equal clock to Qdelays from node 536 to output (Q) 516 for both rising and falling datasignals. In accordance with that assumption, it would only be necessaryto equalize data propagation times from the data input 502 to node 536for both rising and falling input data to equalize the entire datapropagation time from data to Q. However, in actuality, the clock to Qtimes for rising and falling data are different. The actuation of thepass-gate (P2) 510 causes a portion of this disparity. For example, whenthe rising clock pulse allows data to pass through pass-gate 510, theinverted clock signal B applied to pass-gate 510 will be a fallingpulse, which opens P-channel device (MP4) 540 prior to the time when theclock pulse rises to open the N-channel device (MN4) 538 of pass-gate510. Depending upon the polarity of the data waiting to pass throughpass-gate 510, this will affect the delay through pass-gate 510. If datais high at node 536, then the early opening of P-channel component (MP4)540 will allow the positive data signal to pass through the pass-gate510. In turn, if low data is waiting at node 536, the P-channel device(MP4) 540 will attempt to pass the low data signal through the pass-gate510. However, the low data signal will not be well driven to node 542until the N-channel device (MN4) 538 is later asserted by the clockpulse. The effects on N-channel device (MN5) 548, P-channel device (MP5)546 and tri-state driver (T₂) 544 are similar to those described withrespect to inverter 508 and master loop 531. Similarly, N-channel device(MN6) 554 and P-channel device (MP6) 552, that are included in inverter514, have effects that are similar to the devices in inverter 504. Thesame techniques can be used to alter the timing of pass-gate 510,inverter 512 and inverter 514 to alter the timing of these devices fordifferent data polarities through nodes 542, 550 to the output (Q) 516.

FIG. 6 discloses a process 600 for optimization of the latching circuit500 (FIG. 5) to be polarity independent. As shown in FIG. 6, a libraryrepresentation of the slew rate is generated for the combinational gatesof the library. A low drive inverter can be used to obtain these values,such as a four fan-out circuit of inverters in which the first inverterdrives four inverters, and one of those inverters in turn drives fourmore inverters. The slew rates on the output of an inverter in that typeof structure can be used to represent the ratio and values of the datainput signals into the latching element during optimization. Forexample, in G65LP the ratio of slew rates was determined to be 43 ps/28ps for rising/falling data signals when measured at 30 percent/70percent transition points. An initial latching circuit design is thencreated at step 604. At step 606, the elements of the initial latchingcircuit design are sized. At step 608, the initial circuit design islaid out. At step 610, parasitic extraction is performed on the layoutgenerating a netlist of extraction data for the initial circuit designlayout. Both steps 608, 610 are optional, but provide more accurateresults. At step 612, the device widths are optimized, as describedabove, using the netlist extraction data and constraints based upon apercentage of the initial design sizes to tune the latching circuit tobe polarity independent.

Again, one of the constraints is that device sizes do not exceedapproximately 10 to 15 percent of the device sizes of the initiallayout. This constraint is used to ensure that the parasitic dataremains valid.

For optimization of flip-flop 500, hspice optimization routines can beutilized. Concurrent goals can be set on rising data setup, falling datasetup, rising clock to Q and falling clock to Q delays, such thatrising/falling data setup times are equal, as well as rising/fallingclock to Q delays. An example of routines that can be used include:

-   -   Set the FO4 slew rates for use in the deck    -   . . .    -   +trd=‘43p/0.4’    -   +tfd=‘28p/0.4’    -   . . .    -   Parameterize some of the device sizes in the netlist and allow a        set range of variation of each device in the datapath. Allow the        optimization to work on device widths only and limit the amount        of variation to reduce the error from not having the device        parasitics scale appropriately with the device widths.    -   . . .    -   .param dpchw=opt1 (0.64μ, 0.58μ, 0.64μ)    -   .param dpchw=opt1 (0.44μ, 0.40μ, 0.44μ)    -   .param ipasspw=opt 1 (0.30μ, 0.27μ, 0.33μ)    -   .param ipassnw=opt 1 (0.30μ, 0.27μ, 0.33μ)    -   .param mdrvpw=opt 1 (0.36μ, 0.33μ, 0.39μ)    -   .param mdrvnw=opt 1 (0.24μ, 0.21μ, 0.27μ)    -   .param mspasspw=opt 1 (0.24μ, 0.21μ, 0.27μ)    -   .param mspassnw=opt 1 (0.24μ, 0.21μ, 0.27μ)    -   .param sdrvpw=opt 1 (0.31μ, 0.27μ, 0.35μ)    -   .param sdrvnw=opt 1 (0.21μ, 0.18μ, 0.24μ)    -   . . .    -   Set spice to monitor to concurrent goals (10 percent pushout on        clk2 q to derive rising data setup, the same for falling data        setup . . . falling data setup equal to rising data setup, and        falling data clk2 q timing equal to rising data clk2 q timing)    -   . . .    -   .tran 1 ps ‘tsim’ sweep optimize=opt1    -   +results=pushout_oper_rd,pushout_per_fd,tsu_fd,tfd_ck2 q_gold    -   +model=optmod

At step 614, the layout is altered with the optimal design widths. Atstep 616, the circuit is then recharacterized to ensure properoperation.

Hence, the embodiments disclosed provide techniques for alteringcomponent sizes in a flip-flop to provide minimal sequential overhead.Reduction in overconstrained paths due to rise/fall setup timedisparities, which also leads to excessive power consumption as a resultof the requirement of meeting large setup times, are overcome by thedisclosed embodiments, which equalizes the setup times. Equalization ofclock to Q delays for both rising and falling data is also achieved inaccordance with the disclosed embodiments. The disclosed embodimentutilizes hspice optimization routines so that concurrent goals can beset for rising data setup, falling data setup, rising clock to Q andfalling clock to Q delays to achieve substantially equal rising/fallingdata setup times, as well as rising/falling clock to Q delays.

The foregoing description of the invention has been presented forpurposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, andother modifications and variations may be possible in light of the aboveteachings. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to bestexplain the principles of the invention and its practical application tothereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the inventionin various embodiments and various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated. It is intended that the appended claims beconstrued to include other alternative embodiments of the inventionexcept insofar as limited by the prior art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of reducing sequential overhead in a latching circuit design by adjusting rising and falling data setup times and clock to Q delays of rising and falling data transitions in a computer, wherein said computer performs the processes comprising: creating an initial latching circuit design in said computer using a device library; using library test cells of said device library in said computer to determine slew rates for combinational logic in said initial latching circuit; using said slew rates for said combinational logic of said initial latching circuit to determine said rising and falling data setup times and clock to Q delays of said rising and falling data transitions in said computer; altering device widths of said combinational logic of said initial latching circuit design in said computer to alter said slew rates so that said rising and falling data setup times are substantially equal, said clock to Q delays are substantially equal for said rising and falling data transitions, and said clock to Q delays are not increased by more than approximately ten percent, to generate a latching circuit design in said computer that is substantially polarity independent and has reduced sequential overhead.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said process of altering device widths further comprises: using hspice optimization routines to set concurrent goals for data setup times for both rising and falling data signals, and clock to Q delays for said rising and falling transitions.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein said process of altering said device widths further comprises: using representative slew rates during hspice optimization for rising and falling data input transitions that are stored in said device library.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein said process of altering said device widths of said combinational logic of said initial circuit design comprises: altering device widths of said combinational logic of said initial circuit design except for input and output inverters. 